A ranch that's not a ranch--Ranch A

Excerpted from an article by
by Phyllis Guenin
Spearfish, South Dakota
Originally printed in Western Byways

A ranch is a place where cowboys raise cattle. Right?

Not necessarily. It may be a place where people raise fish, as is the case with Ranch A in Sand Creek Canyon, south of the small and sometimes lively town of Beulah, Wyoming.

Although Beulah, ten miles west of Spearfish, was a thriving community at least 40 years before Ranch A came into existence, its later history became interwoven with that of Ranch A.

Any description of Ranch A must begin with a look at 1930 and Moses Annenberg. Annenberg was already the multi-millionaire owner of a variety of business and real estate operations, the most profitable being the Daily Racing Form, and virtually every other racing publication in the country.

Born in Germany in 1878, young Moses, at the age of seven, came with his mother and the rest of his family to join his father who had immigrated to America three years earlier. After working in his younger years as a peddler, Western Union messenger boy, livery stable sweeper, and bartender, he went to work for William Randolf Hearst on one of his Chicago newspapers.

Quickly working his way up in the newspaper business, he become a millionaire by the time he was thirty. He bought several magazines, newspapers and distribution agencies, and was ultimately to own the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In 1930, Moe Annenberg--then in his heyday--was vacationing in the Black Hills. He stopped in at Cooper's Luncheonette in Spearfish, sampled the trout dinner, thought it was delicious, and asked where it came from. Learning that it was caught at George LaPlante's place a few miles south of Beulah on Sand Creek, he went out, made a deal with LaPlante and bought the place. Annenberg said Sand Creek reminded him of the river that flowed through his hometown in Germany. In 1932, he began the building of Ranch A, a ranch in name only, which was to be a vacation spot for Annenberg, his family, relatives and friends for many years. 

Costing over $1,000,000 and taking two years to build, Ranch A consisted of an eight-bedroom lodge, a garage with spacious living quarters upstairs, a large horse barn, and four cabins--all of pine log construction. Original blueprints show a large swimming pool which was never built, probably due to the short length of time that the days would be warm enough to encourage swimming. Electricity was supplied by Annenberg's own generating plant, powered by the flowing water of Sand Creek.

The main lodge sits back against the canyon with a vast lawn area in front. A landscaping blueprint shows meticulous planning for a horticultural extravaganza. Plants, trees and flowers of a variety not before seen in this area were to be planted in circles, squares and designs all about the grounds. It is not known whether the plan was ever fully realized. A fountain in the center of the lawn was a focal point around which small spruce trees were planted, trees which now are grown so large that the rock base of the fountain is almost hidden. Only the pine and spruce trees, a few lilac bushes, and a wide expanse of grass remain of what must have once been a sight to delight the eyes of Moe Annenberg's guests.

The lodge has a huge main floor room suggestive of a hotel lobby, with a stone fireplace at one end, which accommodates five-foot logs, its chimney reaching upward to another fireplace on the second floor balcony that surrounds the room. The eight bedrooms and five baths occupy three sides of the balcony floor. Big game trophy heads hang from the balcony railing, coyote heads appear as part of light fixtures, and a bobcat head adorns a gun cabinet. Navajo rugs, woven on looms larger than any now in existence, hung on the walls. (They are now at the University of Denver Conservation Center being cleaned and repaired.)

This additional information was received via email from Kenneth Eldeen:

My grandfather ,Bill Juso and his brothers were the contractors who built Ranch A.